Mikhail Vysotsky came of humble parentage - a serf in Imperial
Russia. He rose to achieve manumission through his skill with
the Russian seven string guitar. In this he was executant, renowned
teacher and composer. He more than made his mark in the salons
of Moscow and added to his exotic allure through spending much
time, late into the night, with gypsy musicians whose ideas
and flavours passed through his music. They brought ‘dangerous’
colours and flavours to the aristocracy and the respectable
burgers of Moscow.

The idiom is part trembling balalaika territory - though the
instruments do not include balalaikas) but much more Donizetti
and Bellini. Sentimentality is not seen as a boundary - rather
as a virtue. The music recalls many bel canto florid
delights as well as Beethoven's romantic Scottish songs and
Neapolitan romances.

This medley is essentially a mix of instrumentals and songs.
It's well calculated from a genre that could pall if not sufficiently
varied. The disc is built around the resonant voice of Anne
Harley and the very forwardly plangent resinous sound of the
seven string Russian guitar. While the fiddle puts in appearances
it is the peppery tang of the guitar that predominates.

Rukin's Shall I come forth? is expertly put across by
Harley. Orekhov's The Gypsies were travelling is a sort
of cross between Django Reinhardt and Muscovite starry nights.
Zhuchkovsky's We Live in the Fields adds a classical
violin to the smiling mix with the instrumentalists injecting
zingaresco exclamations to the singing.

This disc opens a doorway into Moscow's 19th century
infatuation with all things gypsy: the open road, the sensuous,
the liberation from the quotidian, the camp fire, the dangerous
and the divine. The music enjoyed réclame in Imperial Russia's
great cities and on this sampling was populist, unsubtle and
full of Tzigane paprika - a slice of alluring exotica from a
bygone era. One can see how Liszt, Sarasate and Brahms were
attracted to this libertine flame. A Gypsy Moscow series of
this music would not be unexpected.

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